Blink Back to Let Me Know
by mbrattoo
Summary: Graduation is over, Kurt's still in Ohio. New York is still top priority but, he can't help but adore his new job involving a certain group of Warblers and his favorite language. It does help that he's found a new, albeit overly dapper friend in Blaine
1. Chapter 1: First Day

**Summary: **Graduation is over, Kurt's still in Ohio. New York is still top priority but, he can't help but adore his new job involving a certain group of Warblers and his favorite language. It does help that he's found a new, albeit overly dapper friend in Blaine Anderson. Student-teacher!Kurt Student!Blaine

**Title: **First Day

**Characters: **Kurt Hummel, Blaine Anderson

**POV: Third Person**

**Note:** The title comes from one of my all time favorite songs by Panic! at the Disco. The song is _Always_ and I definitely recommend it. Enjoy.

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><p>Kurt Hummel could pretend all he wanted that he was genuinely happy.<p>

He could put on his charming, elegant smile, which he did, at the drop of a hat and pretend that he was honestly happy to be back in Lima, Ohio.

He could imagine that he was happy to be at Ohio State for his freshman year of college, in order to cut back expenses at NYADA for his remaining three years of college.

There were things, however, that Kurt Hummel was indeed happy about.

He was happy that his family was so close by and that they were all in good health.

He was happy that he managed to land a student-teaching opportunity at the prestigious Dalton Academy, rather than the dreaded McKinley High School. As far as Kurt was concerned, 80% of what made it worth it to even be at that school had graduated, if not with him, than a year or so after him.

Those were, of course, his best friends, who were now dispersed thoroughly throughout the States, some to model, others in hopes of landing a record deal and, a few as choreographers. Artie was sure to make a hell of a filmmaker, if Kurt knew anything at all.

Naturally, many simply weren't able to go to college together, with such conflicting aspirations.

Kurt was also delighted that his spot at NYADA had been secured and that his ever faithful best friend Rachel was kind enough to attend a year at Ohio State with him.

Okay, truth be told, Kurt knew that was a damned lie.

Best friend, or not, if Rachel Berry had been accepted into NYADA, she would've left Kurt's ass as soon as possible to grab her dreams by the balls.

Sadly, it simply wasn't meant to be and she felt that she could hold off on running to NYU and possibly ease her dads' expenses on her as well by merely waiting a year and trying again. Of course, she'd swear up and down that she'd only refused to go to NYU for the benefit of Kurt. It would be a travesty, according to her, for them not to fully experience the Big Apple together, simultaneously. Kurt called bull, in his mind, of course.

Kurt was currently lying on his back in his large, king sized bed, in his own nice, affordable apartment.

He was at the point in his morning where you know that you need to haul ass and soon but, you can't find a reason to. Sure, there are plenty of reasons to stop being a lazy bum on an early Monday morning but, the feel of seven pillows and new, plush comforters are offering you a far better option.

Kurt did, eventually, manage to yank himself from the near immersion of fluffiness surrounding him, tripping a bit on his way out of bed. He stopped to stare at it, noting the similarity between the shape of his silver toned body pillow, quite similar to that of a person the way the blankets were bunched around it.

It wasn't the first time that Kurt realized that it probably couldn't hurt to find himself a boyfriend.

As Kurt made his way to his large restroom, he found his previously selected outfit and strolled into the room, setting the clothes aside.

Once in front of his flawlessly cleaned mirror, he frowned a bit at the state of his hair. He probably would have made more of an effort to get up, had he known his brunette hair would betray him on his first day.

He sped a bit through his normal skin care regime before carefully styling his hair. Only once he had finished did he realize that it clearly was not a carefully-style-your-hair day. It was clearly more of a comb it, brush it, spray some stuff in about the general area that it's in and see where it falls day. He did just that and found that he rather liked the effect, which admittedly, made his life a little bit easier.

He quickly found a granola bar and a bottle of green tea for breakfast, deciding to take it with him and buy snacks at the school later on if he needed to. Thankfully, he already his lunch made. Private school food was still school food as far as he was concerned.

After scouring the apartment for a few minutes, he was able to locate his keys, cellphone and, wallet. Not for the first time, he wondered why he continually made his life more difficult by never leaving the items in the same place, and _together_ for that matter.

As he walked through the doorway, he remembered that he hadn't watered the plants that his step-mother, Carole, had given to him when he first moved in and made a mental note to get back to that later.

The drive to Dalton wasn't that long and was actually kind of nice. Kurt had always enjoyed passing through Westerville and had only previously had reason to stop there for a change in scenery while shopping.

He found himself smiling upon pulling into a parking space at the school. The school was a beautiful array of red brick, placed elegantly into a tasteful gothic structure.

There were well-trimmed shrubs that were the color that you'd only expect to find on television and every blade of grass seemed to be cut to the exact level of the blade beside it.

There was a large bell tower on one side of the school and a beautiful, wide set of arching stairs that led to the large, twelve foot doors standing guard at the front entrance.

As Kurt neared the doors, he found that on each of the four doors, there was a heavy, brass doorknocker in the shape of intricate leaves nestled against the dark, cherry wood.

Moss also traveled along one side of the school in a way that Kurt would normally find disgusting but, on this school, it actually gave it a timeless, European feel. To put it lightly, Kurt was impressed.

However, he opted to ignore the doorknockers in spite of the temptation and settled for merely opening the door himself, stepping into what could only be called a receiving room.

The theme of the room was obviously tastefully placed golden accents placed against an overall pearl scheme that Kurt, surprisingly enough, actually approved of. The only thing he'd change would be the off-white leather ottoman pushed against a large chair in the far corner.

If he'd been in charge of design, he either would have found it in _pearl_, not off-white, or settled for a classic black, or even a more masculine brown. It was, after all, a boys' school.

There was a slight, red-headed woman at the front desk, smiling pleasantly up at him. "And, what can I do for you today, sir?" She asked sweetly, turning her head in a way that Kurt had to admit was kind of adorable, especially since she wasn't any taller than Rachel.

"I'm new. I'm the French student teacher, Kurt Hummel." Kurt responded, reaching to straighten out his vest as he watched the woman reach for something under the large window.

"Alright, then. Your info is right here. Would you like for me to find a student to give you a tour, perhaps? I would myself but, the dean has me nearly swamped with all this paperwork." She rolled her eyes at Kurt with a light chuckle, which he returned with a smile.

"Yes, please. I'm sure it's gonna take me a while to find my way around here. Might as well jump right in." Kurt shrugged, turning to admire the pictures mounted against the walls as she started to dial on the phone.

There were many paintings, some of landscapes, others of unconventional portraits of various people that Kurt didn't recognize. They were all distinctly unique but, one blaringly evident detail that they all shared in common was the fact that they were all beautiful in their own way.

In one picture, a black and white photograph, a girl was staring up at the sky, delight written plainly across her face and if you paid attention, you could just make out about eight drops of rain falling from the slightly sky, one sitting delicately against her cheek. What stood out in the photo was that, despite the rain, the sun was shining clearly in one side of the print, the light of the beams reflecting in the somewhat blurred trees in the background.

"What's really interesting, I think, is that every last one of these was done by students." A friendly, conversational voice remarked from behind Kurt that was definitely not Priya, if Kurt recalled her nametag properly.

No, this voice was deeper and even friendlier, if that were possible. Kurt wasn't sure.

Kurt turned to take in the owner of the voice just as Priya chirped. "Oh Kurt, this is-" Before she was cut off with a smile, not unkindly by the boy.

Everything paused a bit as Kurt took the boy in. He was shorter than Kurt and more compact and had thick, nearly black hair, which was over-gelled, in Kurt's opinion. He wore a navy blue jacket and grey slacks, obviously a product of the dress code at the school. His eyes were a deep, golden brown and vaguely reminded Kurt of an overeager puppy and were tilted into large, almond shapes.

"Blaine Anderson. You're Kurt Hummel? The student teacher, right? I've heard so much about you." Blaine gushed with an easy, charming smile. It was infectious and Kurt found himself grinning back at the boy.

Kurt had never been a fan of dogs, much less puppies but, suddenly felt as if he could make an exception. Just this once.

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><p><strong>Should this be continued? Yay or nay?<strong>


	2. Chapter 2: A Bit of Bonding

**Sorry for the wait but, in other news, the next chapter is over halfway written already. Should be out by this weekend, if not the very beginning of next week. **

****Note: ****So, to clarify a few things: 1. Kurt and Blaine do not know each other previous to this story. 2. Kurt attended McKinley High exclusively. More will be explained on that front in later chapters. Thank you all for your reviews- they were very sweet. Enjoy.

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><p><strong>Summary: <strong>Graduation is over, Kurt's still in Ohio. New York is still top priority but, he can't help but adore his new job involving a certain group of Warblers and his favorite language. It does help that he's found a new, albeit overly dapper friend in Blaine Anderson. Student-teacher!Kurt Student!Blaine

**Title: **A Bit of Bonding

**Characters: **Kurt Hummel, Blaine Anderson

**POV: **Third Person

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><p>Kurt found himself gawking at the interior design of the school, only vaguely listening to the boy's, Blaine's, friendly chatter.<p>

The walls were nearly pristine inside of Dalton and were a warm, comforting cream that was highlighted by the dark wood paneling of the hallways.

The floors alternated, seemingly at random, with either hardwood or carefully placed tiling, which Kurt found was far better than the cheaply carpeted classrooms of his high school.

"The foreign language wing is coming up. We can scope out your new classroom." Blaine smiled up at Kurt, dark eyes shining in the natural light streaming through the picture windows on either side of them.

"A whole wing dedicated to it? At my old school, you had Spanish or French. Chinese, that one odd year…" Kurt trailed off, rolling his eyes as he remembered the broken state that the textbooks were in and how hardly any of the teachers had even visited the respective countries of their professions.

"Yep. We have all of those too but, they also offer German, Portuguese, Latin and, Swahili. I think they just introduced a new Korean class, too." Blaine replied easily, enjoying the look of shock that briefly crossed Kurt's face.

The senior would be lying if he didn't admit that he found the new student teacher hot. Hell, hot didn't even begin to cover it.

He was wearing a pair of blue skinny jeans that looked as though they were made for him, which he had paired with a black, brocade vest with silver detailing. Under that, he wore a crisp, white dress shirt, the first few buttons left undone, which was making it just a bit difficult for Blaine to focus on the task at hand. It was unbuttoned just enough for him to get a glimpse of Kurt's flawless, pale skin.

"I had to take private lessons to learn Latin." Kurt supplied with a sidelong glance at Blaine. The boy really did remind him of a puppy, what with all the eager nodding and grinning at everything he said.

"Oh? How was that?" The other boy asked politely, triangular eyebrows raised in interest.

"Horrible. I hated every second of it but, it really does help with learning other languages. A lot of the grammar holds true for English as well, which was helpful." Kurt responded easily, with a laugh.

"Well, I wouldn't know. I can only really speak English and Tagalog." Blaine shrugged as they crossed the arch of the corridor.

"Tagalog? I may have heard of it but, I'm not so sure..." Kurt responded as he pursed his lips, trying to remember why it did sound familiar.

"It's a language spoken in the Philippines. My mother grew up there before moving to the States." The boy smiled and Kurt was finally able to place to almond shape of his eyes, as well as his olive toned skin.

"Ah, bilingual then?" Kurt wanted nothing more than to ask the boy to say something in the language but felt that it might be a bit too forward.

"Yeah. If I ever figure French out, I could probably become trilingual." Blaine glanced at him with a grin. "I don't think I've quite earned that title yet, what with my D and all." He stage whispered jokingly.

Kurt's mouth fell, playful surprise written clearly across his face. "Une D, Monsieur? Vraiment?" Kurt inquired incredulously.

Blaine had to mentally shake himself to form a cohesive response because something about the older boy's countertenor in a foreign language had halted his thoughts altogether. "Sadly, yes. I'm in desperate need of a tutor, Mademoiselle says, but I haven't found one yet." Blaine finally responded lightly.

The two continued to walk down the twisting corridor until Blaine stopped abruptly, turning on his heels to grin at Kurt before pressing the door open.

The hallway was lined with various maps from around the world. As Kurt stared up at the maps, Blaine quickly located the room, which fortunately, was devoid of a class at the moment.

"Your room awaits." Kurt quickly came to realize that this Blaine kid was a bit of dork- not in a bad way but, in an obvious way.

"No teacher?" Kurt asked, upon entering and taking a quick scan of the room. It wasn't that the room wasn't nice because it most certainly was but, he was used to the decor that emanated from Dalton's walls.

"She doesn't have a first hour so, she usually arrives later than the other teachers." Blaine explained.

Kurt found himself rolling his eyes despite himself. Someone definitely could have told him that sooner, seeing as how he had to literally drag himself out of bed at such an untimely hour.

Kurt wandered to the small yet well supplied library lining the shelves underneath the windows. All of them were French titles, a few of which he'd read but, surprisingly, he wasn't acquainted with many of them. He made a mental note to check some of them out later, if he had the time.

"Does she ever make you guys read these?" Kurt asked as he stood from his crouched position beside the books, adjusting his hair simultaneously.

"Psh. I don't think I could even if I wanted to." Blaine shook his head adorably, a few tendrils of hair managing to fly out the gel that he'd matted against his hair.

"Surely you aren't that bad." Kurt smirked as he raised an eyebrow at the other boy before bending to retrieve a book at random. "Translate the first few lines or so for me." Kurt suggested as he handed him the book before positioning himself behind Blaine's shoulder in order to read the text along with him.

"Okay but, I'm warning you here, Kurt." Blaine flashed him an impish smile before turning to the first page.

Kurt waited patiently as Blaine's eyes scanned the page before him. "Uh, I think it's saying that the young man is in the park all alone and… Uh, he sees all of these animals around him?" Blaine frowned, causing a crease to form on his brow as he looked to Kurt for approval.

"Uh huh. What kind of animals?" Kurt asked encouragingly, raising his eyebrows in anticipation as he scanned the words ahead of Blaine.

"Birds and a dog. There are fish in the lake, no stream. Multi-colored fish?" Blaine provided with a shrug.

"See? That wasn't so bad, now was it?" Kurt nudged his shoulder with his own, blushing when he noticed that Blaine didn't move his arm even a bit, he just stayed put, their shoulders firmly pressed together.

"Yeah but, that was only the first two sentences. There are only about twenty more on this page alone and it took me a long time just to figure this part out." Blaine replied skeptically.

"Trust me, you'll get there. You just have to practice. You know, tenses and things." Kurt hoped that he was being helpful. He didn't really know what to tell the boy since he'd had such a natural affinity for the language. His mother had started teaching it to him when he'd started school and a few years after her death, it was available in middle school so, he figured he'd give it shot. Turns out, his mother had taught him the basic rules for the language and all he really needed to focus on was the vocabulary.

"You translate it now." Blaine shoved the book at him, which Kurt tried to return as he shook his head. "Come on, it's only fair." Blaine wheedled, tilting his head.

"How about I just read it? I haven't practiced my pronunciation in a while. A lot of it is composition and comprehension in college." Kurt explained and Blaine nodded his approval.

Kurt had only planned on finishing up the first page but, Blaine continued to egg him on, even though he only understood what seemed like every tenth word or so.

Despite his confusion, Blaine enjoyed hearing the words roll seamlessly off of Kurt's tongue. His teacher was good at teaching French but, he'd never heard someone speak it with the passion that Kurt obviously held for it. Blaine vaguely wondered if Kurt was indeed French but, refrained from asking.

He decided that if he ever somehow got the opportunity to get to know Kurt, he'd ask him his story behind French. Somehow, he just knew there had to be a story.

"I think you were just trying to divert my attention from your horrible French skills." Kurt accused playfully, earning a loud gasp from the younger boy.

"I'm horrible at it?" He feigned disappointment but, for some reason, he really hoped that the older boy didn't actually think he was _that _bad at French. He'd said he just needed to practice, right?

"Of course not. I could tutor if you want. I doubt I'll be that busy if this is any clue." Kurt gestured lazily around the room.

"I proctor this hour and the next so, I have time. Whenever you're free will be fine." Blaine said as he lowered himself into one of the many desks littered around the room. Kurt followed suit.

"How'd you manage that?" Kurt's nose scrunched in confusion, which Blaine found adorable.

"Well, I already have a surplus of credits right now so, I have a lot of leeway. And, second hour is my independent studio art class. The teacher doesn't usually mind if we show up or not as long as we meet the deadlines for each project." Blaine explained automatically, as if he'd been asked the question quite a few times.

"Ah, an artist, I see? What media do you focus on?" Kurt asked, genuinely interested.

"I really enjoy mixed media, actually but, this year; I've found myself focusing more on photography. I love shooting 35mm." Blaine gushed as he was reminded of his current project.

"I may or may not be a bit of an artiste myself." Kurt shrugged passively as he glanced coyly over his shoulder.

"And what, Monsieur, do _you_ focus on?" Blaine asked in a horrible French accent that made Kurt giggle. The sound kind of made Kurt shudder, actually. Kurt Hummel does not giggle.

"I've always loved fashion designing. That's actually one of the things I'm going to school for right now." He supplied airily.

"Oh, that and French?" Blaine inquired, failing to see the correlation between the two but, admiring the boy's obvious talent nonetheless.

"Actually, I'm not technically going to school to study French but, by the time I graduate, I'll have a degree in it regardless, due in part to some of my high school hours rolling over. I'm actually studying fashion design and merchandising along with musical theatre." Kurt said, as he felt, and heard, his stomach growl. Clearly, that granola bar and bottle of green tea weren't enough.

"Well, I'd say you're far artsier than I am." Blaine looked impressed. "Hey, if you're hungry, we can head down to the cafeteria- they're open all day and they're still serving breakfast."

Kurt was just about to decline before he thought better of it. This is what Kurt had wanted. He had planned to meet a bunch of exciting, new people his freshman year, despite not being in New York yet. Blaine counted, even if he didn't go to school with him.

"Alright, dear tourist guide. I am at your mercy." Kurt waved his hand dramatically forward, enjoying the sound of the student's laughter as he did.

Eh, maybe he was a bit of a dork as well but, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

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><p><strong>Let me know what you think so far.<strong>

**-Alexis**


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